Pages

Monday, January 16, 2012

The Birthday Project and a GIVEAWAY!

It's here! Birthday week in our house, that is. One week from today (1/23) my daughter turns 15. Yikes. And even more yikes...I turn the big 4-0 on Saturday (1/21). Honestly, I still feel 25 sometimes, so this just doesn't seem possible. However, I'm holding out with great hope that my 40s and beyond will be the best years of my life.

For the past two years, I've had such joy in doing a birthday blog giveaway. I'm doing that again this year...but with a twist.

My sweet friend, Amber, had her birthday earlier this month and spent the better part of a day doing a random act of kindness (RAOK) for each year of her life. You can read about it by clicking here. I thought it was such a wonderful idea, and I knew I had to steal it! I find so much pleasure in doing for others (especially those RAOKs) that I decided I would do 40 random acts of kindness for my 40th birthday. However, I don't have the energy that Amber does to do it all in one day, so I've spread mine out over the 10-11 days leading up to my birthday. I'm in the middle of this birthday project and will report on it Sunday - the day after my birthday, so you can see how everything turned out. But, let's just say I'm having a blast so far! My daughter has even joined in on the madness and is doing 15 RAOKs for her 15th birthday. I loved watching her in action at our local Walmart over the weekend. It did this mama's heart good! :-)

Anyway, back to the giveaway....

Here's how it will work. First off, it begins tonight (sorry this post is getting up a little late) and will run through midnight on Saturday (the 21st). I'll announce the winner on Sunday evening (the 22nd). How can you enter you might be wondering?

1) Perform a random act of kindness for somebody this week and then come back here and leave a comment saying what you did. If you want to do 2, 3, 30, 50...you can come back here and leave that many comments. Essentially...for each unique random act of kindness you do...come back here and leave a comment. Each comment gets you an entry (don't bundle all of your RAOKs into one comment, because that will only get you one entry). See what I mean? Now - as for the word "unique". Let's say that you buy 10 plants and plan to give them to 10 different people...that only counts as one comment entry. But, if you buy 10 plants & give them to 10 people and then carry groceries out for someone at the store, and giveaway 5 Starbucks cards - that would be considered 3 different entries (because that's 3 unique types of RAOKs). I hope this makes sense.

2) The other way to enter is to post about this giveaway on Twitter and/or Facebook and provide the link back to this blog post. THEN...come back here and comment and tell me you've done. The comment is what Random Integer will pick up when selecting the winner.

So, you can get your first entries in immediately by spreading the word on Twitter and Facebook and then come back after you complete your RAOKs. They don't have to be big and elaborate friends...just bless somebody...randomly...when they're not especting it. Can you imagine all the smiles this week?

So, what will you win? I've got a picture of it below, but specifically...you will win:

1) A Daily Prayer Organizer - what better random (or intentional) act of kindness can you do for somebody than pray for them. This is a WONDERFUL organizer new on the market. I have one and LOVE it!

2) Two journals - one to keep and one for you to give away (another RAOK)

3) Two $5.00 Starbucks giftcards - one to keep and one for you to give away (and yet another RAOK)

4) Lastly, a box of blank notecards. Leaving a kind note for someone is another powerful way to express love and you can even do it randomly!

I'm praying for a great turnout with this giveaway, because I truly want to see all of us catch the "RAOK fever". If you've never had much experience before with offering random acts of kindness...trust me, you will be so blessed!

Now...on your mark...get set...go bless somebody!!!

Don't forget to come back and here and tell me about it and get entered to win! :-)

O.K., since you said I could use it . . . I made a pan of Toll House Cookie Bars for my daughter and her friends - they have exams the next 2 days but a group of them have a "college" class first hour that they have already finished. They were planning to meet together and watch a movie, so I offered a pan of bars - my daughter sweetly told me they didn't need them, but I made them anyway - so not "totally" random, since I work at the school, but still "random" because they weren't asked for and I hadn't planned on making them! :)

my random act has lasted 2 and 1/2 years...my friend was given a death sentence with kidney cancer...i promised her that I would walk her journey with her no matter how long it took..she is almost at the end of her journey..But each day I would send her an encouraging word or a bible verse to keep her moving forward with her journey...and a weekly call...I have not missed one day in all that time....Lisa Sabbides

I was looking for a RAOK during my errand run today. I found it at PETsMART. As I stood in the checkout line, the lady in front of me asked the cashier to add up the other items in her cart and if she had enough she'd get the treats she had set aside. The cashier rang everything up and she didn't have enough cash to get her other items AND the treats, so I asked her if I could buy her the treats in honor of your birthday and she said yes. I told her about what you're doing and she said she thought that was an awesome idea. She said thanks to me but made me promise to say THANK YOU to you and HAPPY BIRTHDAY. :))